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Time to sit and consider

Taking it slow with Slow Food U.S.A.

Village Feast
Frankie Frankeny

How many times has your mother told you to slow down and chew your food? Slow Food U.S.A. wants to tell you the same thing—and why it’s important.

    In the 1980s, Carlo Petrini and a group of outraged Italians protested McDonald’s moving into one of Rome’s cobbled, medieval squares. In this, Petrini saw the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of preserving regional traditions, celebrating cultural identity via cuisine—and of slowing down long enough to enjoy it all. Thus was born the nonprofit Slow Food International and, among the national offshoots, Slow Food U.S.A. and its more than 150 chapters.

    Napa, Solano and Yolo counties each have their own chapter, called a convivium. Slow Food Yolo has, since 2004, been co-chaired by cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan (A Pig in Provence: Good Food and Simple Pleasures in the South of France), and Ann M. Evans, a food educator, writer and former mayor of Davis. Yolo’s first fundraising event was a wine and cheese tasting at R.H. Phillips Winery. “We worked with the California Cheese Board and had a selection of artisan cheeses from Northern California, paired with R.H. Phillips wines,” Brennan recalls. “It was a beautiful day in March, and everyone had a wonderful time. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what it’s about.’ And it went on from there.”

    Drawing upon their love for summer’s community village feasts in Provence—where guests bring their best dinnerware, napkins and utensils to the communal table—Evans and Brennan realized, “Yolo County has all these fabulous organic farms. Why not do a Yolo style village feast?” The Village Feast debuted in 2005 and benefits the Davis Farm-to-School Connection, which teaches students about community and environmental awareness, healthy nutrition and the importance of farms.

    The August event means a table full of seasonal, locally grown fruits and vegetables such as peaches, plums, heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and summer squash, as well as other regional bounty like wild California salmon, Yolo County wines, olives and olive oils. The feast, which draws about 300 people, has added a silent auction; some of this year’s prizes included a week at a house in Provence and a guided wild turkey hunt. Last year, the feast raised $10,000. Every year, Brennan says, “It reaches deeper into the community with education, our links to farms, and where our food comes from.”

    On Oct. 13, Slow Food Yolo will partner with Winters’ Wolfskill Ranch to provide a tour of the ranch and a harvest lunch. And a little something extra Yolo County can be proud of: the board of Slow Food U.S.A. chose Yolo County as the place for their annual retreat. “When you think of all the possible places across the country—to have them take tours here, taste the local food and wine, it’s quite an honor,” Brennan says.

    The Solano chapter has been around for just a year, but its June fundraiser, “Sharing Space,” was a great success, says former convivium leader Alexis Koefoed (who has since relinquished the reins to Ruth Gardner Begell). Besides the meet-and-greet between local farmers, two keynote speakers—Richard Rominger, former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, and Craig McNamara, the founder of Center for Land-Based Learning—addressed the issues of farmland preservation and urban growth in Solano County. In August, Solano partnered with Morningsun Herb Farm to host their annual summer tomato tasting, which raised funds for local community and school gardens.

    “It’s nice to have an entity in Solano that promotes food and farmers,” says Koefoed, the owner of Soul Food Farms, “and the idea of slowing down and sitting at the table together. The biggest challenge our first year was spreading the word about Slow Food in Solano. The county is big and spread out, with a demographic that is all over the place.” Koefoed thinks that this may keep some denizens from realizing just how grounded in agriculture the region is. “People always talk about the amazing market at San Francisco’s Ferry Building,” she says, “but a lot of those farmers are from our region.”

For information on a local chapter of Slow Food, visit slowfoodusa.org.

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